• Legal

Budget Template

  • Written By: The Signals Network

This sample budget template is meant to provide individuals with a tool for planning their expenses in case they do decide to speak out.

Each circumstance is unique and you should speak to a lawyer about your case.

One of the primary points past whistleblowers have emphasized was the unexpected financial costs it entailed. This includes professional costs like lawyers and new devices, as well as living costs like rent and health care. You will likely need to use your savings if you are between jobs, and plan how any new employment will help you cover the long-term costs of speaking out (taking days off work, potential travels, etc.).

Since each person’s circumstances are different, this is your template to use as you see fit. The sample rows in the “Costs” column are meant to be an indicator of potential budget items, but you may add and delete rows to fit your needs. This template is meant to represent a 12-month period from the time that you start considering speaking out and begin to incur costs. There are three 12-month periods to help plan the next few years of your journey. Please see the instructions for the template below.

Budget template instructions

  1. Take a step back and think about your financial situation overall.

Professional costs

  1. Do some research on the professional costs you may face. This can include looking up legal fees online or asking lawyers for fee quotes and negotiating with them, asking lawyers about their daily expenses (separate from fees), thinking through what new online security tools you may need, and other costs you might have in the job search.
  2. Once you have done your research you can enter the information into the budget template.
    1. Units: For each budget line, enter the number of units you will need to pay for. 
      1. If you have more than one lawyer it may be useful to create a new budget line for each lawyer since they will likely have different costs.
      2. The costs for lawyers vary dramatically based on the circumstances. One whistleblower told us they were able to get their legal support covered pro bono, while another lawyer told us that their legal expenses for just one month was $192,000.
    2. Months: For each budget line, enter the number of months for the 12-month period beginning when you expect to incur your first costs. If you are paying a lawyer for six months, put “6”. If you have a one-off purchase like a phone, just put a “1”.
    3. Unit cost: For each budget line, enter the unit cost per month. If a lawyer is $3,000 a month, enter “3,000”. If a phone is $750, enter “750”.
      1. If a lawyer charges by the hour, you can calculate the cost per month by multiplying the number of hours per month you will need their services by their cost per hour.
        1. # of hours per month x $ per hour = unit cost per month.
    4. Total: Once you have entered this information for a line, the total column should automatically calculate the total cost per budget line. 
    5. The cost per category will be automatically calculated in the “Professional costs subtotal” in yellow.
  1.  

Personal costs

  1. Think through what your personal costs will be for you and your dependents. What costs was work covering (if any) that you will now be responsible for? This can include health insurance, gas, phone bills, etc.
  2. Repeat the steps for “Units,” “Months,” and “Unit cost” above, but for personal costs.
  3. The cost per category will be automatically calculated in the “Personal costs subtotal” in yellow.

 

Total costs

  1. The subtotals from Professional costs and Personal costs will be totaled automatically in the orange cell of the “Total costs” line.

 

Savings

  1. This is where you can enter the amount of savings you have, or the amount of savings you would be willing to spend during your speaking out journey.
  2. Since this is one lump sum, all you need to do is enter a “1” in the “Units” and “Months” columns and then enter the total savings you are willing to commit in the “Unit savings” column.
  3. You can do this as one sum, or if your family has multiple accounts you may use new lines for each account.
  4. The total savings will be automatically calculated and appear in the blue cell in the “Savings subtotal” budget line.

 

Potential income

  1. This section is to estimate what new income you might begin to earn in the coming months. It is difficult to estimate when you may find a new job, or when another source of income may appear, but if you have a goal or a fair idea of when you may earn an income you can use this section.
    1. Units: You can use one line for each job, and you may add additional lines for additional sources of income like a second job, earnings from investments, etc.
      1. For each source of income, enter a “1”.
    2. Months: You can enter the number of months you expect to earn each source of income. For example, if you expect to find a job in six months, you can enter a “6” for how many months in a 12-month period you expect to work. 
    3. Unit income: You can enter the amount you expect to take home each month here.
    4. The total savings will be automatically calculated and appear in the blue cell in the “Potential income subtotal” budget line.

 

Total revenue

  1. The subtotals from Savings and Potential income will be totaled automatically in the green cell of the “Total revenue” line.

 

Total funds after speaking out

  1. The subtotals from Total costs and Total revenue will be totaled automatically in the pink cell of the “Total funds after speaking out” line.
  2. This line is what you are planning/expect to have remaining after the first 12-month period of speaking out. The number may be above or below $0 based on costs and revenue. While no number is 100% certain, and your circumstances will likely change as the year progresses, updating this budget template will be a helpful indication of how you expect your financial situation to progress after speaking out. If the overall figure in “Total funds after speaking out” is too much of a risk for you to take, then you might want to think carefully about whether to speak out in the first place and other pathways to consider.

 

Year 2 and Year 3

  1. By repeating the steps above for the year 2 and Year 3 charts, you can plan out your expenses and revenue further into the future. The totals for all three years will be automatically calculated in the “Overall total” column on the far right. 
  2. The pink cell in the “overall total” column and the “Total funds after speaking out” line shows the expected 36-month outcome of your journey.
open and download the Budget Template

Disclaimer

The Signals Network does not request, encourage or counsel potential whistleblowers to act unlawfully. This section covers some key information to be aware of based on the experience of other whistleblowers who have been through this before and the people who helped them. This section doesn’t offer legal advice, and potential whistleblowers are encouraged to consult with counsel about their particular situation.

Statement of transparency

This entire project is worthless if the tech workers who come to it cannot trust where the information is from, who is behind its creation, and who manages the site. For that reason, I have identified every organization and individual who has been instrumental in its development.

The time and resources required to put together the Handbook were funded by Omidyar Network. This is a wholly independent project owned and managed by me. No identifying data will ever be collected or shared about who accesses this site — with anyone. That said, I do NOT advise accessing this from a company device. Your employer can, and will likely, track visits to a resource like this Handbook. 

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— Ifeoma Ozoma, Founder of Earthseed, Creator of the Tech Worker Handbook